Exiting the cave was a breath of fresh air; figuratively and literally. It was such a relief to see the sun again and although we hadn’t been in the cave that long the darkness was starting to feel oppressive. When we were outside, I walked over to the small lake that bordered the waterfall that covered the exit and sat down against a tree to drink from my waterskin and admire the view. The sun was all but set and the orange hue was still managing to cling to the tops of the surrounding trees. Silas came over and leaned over the water to wash his hands while Kappa sat beside me.

“How did you know we’d be there?” I asked her after a moment. She looked past me over the water which caught the orange light and sparkled wildly casting her face in a movement of light. Silas stood at the water edge and eagerly tried to catch a frog as I waited for her to answer.

“I was asking around for you when I finally got into Largen. I eventually came into the Bee in the Barrel where Rust told me that you were there and had left with a Goblin. I tracked the two of you here,” she said effortlessly. Part of me was impressed by her thought process the other part realized it was pre-determined by the lines of code I had programmed her with but I pushed that part out of my mind.

“So, when this all happened,” I said gesturing wide to the woods and world around, “where were you?”

She reached down and took out a piece of bread from her sack, splitting it and giving me half as she spoke. I only now realized how hungry I was, and tired. “I had left your house and was pretty far when Dunn popped up around me. At first I thought you had put me back into the game as punishment but I soon realized you wouldn’t have been that cruel.” For a moment, I was hurt that she would’ve considered the thought, then I remembered how I had spoken to her in my bedroom and the front hall and nodded along. She continued. “I was somewhere in the woods west of town and without a map found myself pretty lost. Despite the NPC’s having minds of their own, there were no tracks to follow since everything had been populated from a zero state.” I raised my eyebrows at her thought which made a lot of sense to me.

As I ate the bread I looked over at Silas and realized he must be hungry too. Kappa must have sensed this cause she stopped her story and handed me another piece of bread, saying, “You should see if he’s hungry.”

I walked over to my brother who was calmly watching a frog. He was studying its movement under the water and desperate to hold it when I handed him a piece of bread. He grabbed it and started eating, immediately forgetting the frog.

“What about you Ma…Silas,” I said shaking the name from my mind as I spoke, “where did you land when you entered Dunn.”

“Right next to you,” he said very matter-of-factly. I did a double take from the sunset towards him as he hungrily ate the bread.

“What do you mean right next to me?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I was in the tall grass lying next to where you stood when we entered. I followed you through the woods for a bit and when we got to town watched you enter the tavern.” I scoffed a little at him and shook my head in bewilderment.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked.

“I didn’t know it was you. I went around and stole and sold things and when I came back you were in the booth. It wasn’t until you said you had programmed this that I knew you were my brother.”

It was true that Marcus had never seen my character. I only played him when I was testing alone and most of the time that was for a few minutes at most. I put my arm around him and he moved away slightly, I removed it as quickly as I had placed it and when he thanked me, I smiled at him, “ No, thank you bro, I’m glad I have you with me.”

I stood up and walked back to Kappa who was smiling at the scene. In the dying light she seemed more human than ever before; the smile she wore was genuine and honest, her eyes kind and thin and as she watched me move towards her I almost felt at home.

“I’m glad I have you with me too bud,” I said, trying to sound more friendly, realizing that my smile was a bit too adoring. I sat back down beside her and nudged her in an awkward way as if to say ‘just another one of the team’.

“Well at least it’s not only us,” she said, absentmindedly stuffing the last bits of bread in her mouth. I nodded along and after a second stopped nodding.

“Wait, what do you mean?”

Kappa made a weird expression as if regretting her words but after an uncomfortably long chewing session she swallowed and said,

“Well why do you think Marcus and I are here?” she said as he corrected her to say Silas.

“I dunno,” I said with a furrowed brow. “I guess I assumed because you had characters in game already?” I spoke as if guessing at the answer. She nodded side to side as if considering the validity and, after a beat, said,

“Yes possibly.”

“Or?” I said as if being lead to her answer, one I was already supposed to know.

“Or it pulled people that have already interacted with you from the code.” She said as if holding something back. “When you launched me, I was pulled into your world and converted. As in there were suddenly new lines in the code for me; I was converted to your reality.”

I nodded along following her logic,

“When you launched Dunn… it pulled Dunn into that code populating the scenes, items and images but my code is still there.” She gestured to herself and my eyes began to shift nervously between hers. “I’m not the Dunn version of Kappa. I’m the version of me you changed. Meaning any code that was populated is still active here.” I looked towards Silas who was heading back from the beach and then back to her.

“But I’m my character, as is Silas,” I said with a hint of doubt.

“I think in YOUR case, yes. Your save files must’ve linked up with your characters but anyone else…”

“Would be themselves in a world full of monsters.” I said quietly. Frantically I started searching my mind for who the code was populated for; Me, Kappa, Silas, Mom, Dad and oh no…

“Jessica,” I said, turning back to Kappa, my fingers out as if counting. “You and I ran into her in the woods,” I said frantically. “She must have no idea where the hell she is. We need to find her.” I said as I picked up my satchel. I was nervous to tell Silas about Mom and Dad and for now this was enough to worry about. Silas and Kappa were up as well and together we headed back to the mouth of the cave, back to the horses and back to town just as night finally fell.